When Islam appeared in the world, measured in the seventh century, and Greco-Roman civilization was in decline. Byzantium, doomed to continue the tradition of Athens and Rome, had failed in its mission.
Not only was unable to preserve the cultural treasures that had been in their custody, but that this “second Rome” was responsible for the destruction of a large number of scientific and artistic monuments transmitted to it since ancient times.
The Basilian emperors ignorant fanaticism encouraged by the Byzantine Orthodox supporters, sought to destroy the remnants of a civilization considered pagan. The Emperor Theodosius II became notorious for its destruction was a large scale in North Africa. It was under his orders, and not under the Caliph Omar, who was a false legend attributed the fact, destroyed the famous library of Alexandria. In 489, Emperor Zeno closed the famous school of Edessa, which since the second century had been a center of diffusion of the language Syrian and Greek wisdom throughout the East. Justinian also tarnished her reputation when you close the notorious School of Athens as well as Platonic School of Alexandria.
The monks Nestorians of Edessa and Nisibis and Athenian and Alexandrian philosophers, pursued by the Orthodox church and the Byzantine authorities, took refuge in Persia. There, in full freedom under the protection of the Sassanid toleranle were able to continue translating the Scriptures to the Church Fathers and philosophical and scientific works of ancient Greece.
It was thanks to the painstaking work of these scholars refugees, the Arabs, when they conquered Syria and Persia, they found an important part of the intellectual heritage of Greece.
The Arabs with their innate curiosity were deeply impressed by this world of new ideas and knowledge that will reveal the ancient knowledge. The conquerors began avidly studying the arts and sciences of his newly conquered subjects. Made Arabic translations of Oriental versions and Greek authors of those later works, original had not yet been translated into Syriac or Chaldean.
